


Starting at Zero

by spyoflove



Category: Be My Princess, Otome, voltage - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, angst but with a happy ending, soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 14:56:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17003814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spyoflove/pseuds/spyoflove
Summary: In an alternate universe where people are born with timers counting down to the meeting with their soul mates, a woman with a broken timer inexplicably meets with the prince of her dreams at the same moment his soul mater timer goes off.  Could this "zero" truly be the prince's soul mate?





	Starting at Zero

Amy pushed through the elevator doors and rushed down the hallway as fast as her platform heels could take her, careful not to spill her creamy café mocha. Though laden down with her purse and totebag, she had become an expert at balancing her heavy loads with her morning caffeine fix, all while teetering atop her faithful peeptoes that showed off her sparkly purple pedicure. Thankful once again for the carpeted floor that muffled her footsteps as she crept past the door to her boss’s office, she turned the corner into the main hub of the archives room where her cubicle was located, dropping her bags onto her desk with an exhale of relief.

“Sorry I’m late,” she flashed her coworker Doug who sat across from her an apologetic smile, “Traffic was a nightmare! For some reason all the streets around here were blocked off! I’m amazed I made it in at all, to be honest.”

Doug swallowed his bite of bagel. “You mean you didn’t remember what today is?”

“Uh, no,” she said, turning on her computer. “I’ve been so busy with work lately I’ve kinda been all over the place.”

“Are you kidding? I’d thought you’d have it marked on your calendar!” The surprised voice of Amy’s coworker Patty over the cubicle wall was soon followed by her petite person, the pretty brunette staring at Amy in disbelief. “And you call yourself a Prince Joshua fangirl!”

“Prince Joshua?” Amy blinked. “What does today have to do with Prince Joshua?”

“Geez, for as much as you talk about your crush on that purple prig I’d think you’d know,” Doug snarked over his steaming mug of coffee.

“He’s not a prig, he’s a perfectionist!” Amy switched on her overhead desk lamp with a snap for emphasis.

Doug snorted. “Whatever.”

“You mean you really don’t know?” Patty asked. “It’s all over the news.”

Amy shook her head. “I don’t watch or listen to the news, it’s too depressing, so I have no clue.”

“His soulmate clock counts down to zero today,” said Doug matter-of-factly, shoving the rest of his bagel into his mouth.

It was as though all the wind had been knocked out of Amy’s body, and she clutched her desk chair for leverage. Letting out a shuddering gasp, she felt her heart battering against the confines of her chest, the feeling that she had lost something precious that she could never replace washing over her in a tidal wave. 

“What the hell?” she thought, her left forearm throbbing underneath the fabric of her thin black cardigan. “Why am I feeling like this? It’s not like I had a real chance with him…or anyone else for that matter.”

“Hey, you okay?” Doug asked, his brow furrowing in concern. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

Amy placed a shaky hand over her chest as she sunk into her desk chair. “I guess I’m just winded from rushing in. Man, I’m out of shape, haha.”

Doug exchanged looks with Patty before calling out over his cubicle wall. “Yo, Steven! Go get Amy a bottle of water!”

“Will do!” piped the eager voice of their new intern on the other side. “Be right back!”

Amy waved off Doug. “I’m fine, really.” She turned to Patty. “But what does Prince Joshua’s soul mate timer have to do with the traffic?”

“He’s at the convention center across the street right now,” Patty pointed out a nearby window. “All the women in the kingdom whose timers are counting down today are in line to see if they are a match. If you look outside you can see all of them, it’s crazy!”

Amy swiveled her chair to look out the window by her desk and was stunned to see the swarm of women who had flooded the nearby streets below. Amazingly, the throng had been neatly corralled by the Dres Vanian Royal Guard into an orderly line, which snaked along the building and stretched down the street for blocks past her vision. Narrowing her kiwi green eyes, she searched the faces in the crowd. Could one of those hopefuls really be the future queen of her country?

“I’m surprised you aren’t there too, Amy, being a single girl and all!” Steven remarked, holding out a water bottle to her. “Does your timer not count down today?”

Patty inhaled sharply. Doug tensed.

Looking down, Amy took the bottle from his hands. “No…not today,” she mumbled, avoiding the intern’s curious gaze.

“Steven!” Doug hissed. “Come here, I need to talk to you.”

The young man looked quizzically between his three coworkers who had suddenly fallen silent. “Um…okay.”

Patty retreated to her desk while Doug quickly dragged Steven to a nearby cubicle for privacy. However, the thin walls did nothing to block Doug’s hurried whispers and Steven’s shocked gasp from Amy’s ears.

“Dude, she’s a zero?! No way!”

“Shhh! Keep it down, you idiot!”

Amy clenched her eyes shut. No matter how many times she had heard the epithet it still managed to sting.

Zero. A word reserved for people who were born with their soul mate timers already set at zero, or whose timers had stopped mid-countdown for no explainable reason. People whose timers unaccountably reset to zero without having met their other half, or who hadn’t been born with a timer at all. People who didn’t have a soul mate.

People like her.

She rubbed her left forearm through her sweater, the zeroes etched on her skin underneath irritating her mind as well as her body. How many times had she wished she could just rub them away to oblivion? Sometimes she thought it would have been less cruel to have been born without any numbers at all, because the way the zeroes stared up at her, unblinking, unmoving, were like a merciless taunt, a reminder of how she had almost been normal. Almost.

The zeroes hadn’t always been with her. Like most, she had been born with a timer that counted down to her destined meeting with her soul mate. That is, until the age of four, when her mother was giving her a bath after a long day of watching her and her newborn brother and saw that Amy’s timer had mysteriously dwindled down to nothing. Not only had the little family not ventured out of their home that day, but no one had come to visit either, eliminating the possibility of her encountering anyone who would have caused her timer to stop. Even stranger, the zeroes did not blink, as they usually did when soul mates met, but instead stood eerily still.

Desperate, her parents dragged her to as many soul mate specialists as they could afford on their tiny income to find a solution, but none could answer the baffling question of why her timer had stopped. Eventually, she was officially designated as “chronologically impaired,” a special class of people that until recent years were highly discriminated against. Without a soul mate to marry or procreate with, zeroes had been deemed worthless by regular society for centuries. Thanks to the advent of human rights, zeroes began to gain acceptance along with others members of repressed classes in recent decades, allowing Amy to get an education and a decent job, something that many zeroes before her had not been able to achieve. However, a romantic love relationship was the one thing that would forever be unreachable.

Despite more tolerance of zeroes over the years, she had found that most men considered women like her as Kleenex - useable and disposable. She was something to bide their time with until their real soul mate came along, not someone to love. Still, she had given herself to a couple, in the deep, dark moments when the loneliness became more than she could bear. However, she soon found that the toll of the emotional aftermath was much too high a price to pay for the fleeting moments of counterfeit companionship. 

With a full heart and no one to share it with, Amy instead funneled all her romantic longings into one man - Crown Prince Joshua Lieben. For as long as she could remember, she had held a tremendous crush on the pedantic yet proper prince, sighing over his handsome visage on television and in gossip magazines again and again. She didn’t know when it had started; only that it had always been there, solacing her in the cruelty of her fate. She liked to fancy that Prince Joshua was as lonely in his gilded prison of a castle as she was in the solitary confinement of her stopped clock, that the two might find a common ground in their special kind of aloneness. However, it was moments like this that reminded her that a prince falling in love with a zero was nothing more than a dream. 

She looked out the window once more at the horde of women below. Prince Joshua might be the soul mate of one of them, but not all. Yet, each and every one of those women had a soul mate - unlike her. And no matter how good of a person she was, no matter how well she followed the many Dres Vanian rules, she never, ever would.

With a deep breath Amy shrugged it off, as she had so many times before. More important to her was how she was going to get to her favorite lunch place that lay on the other side of the convention center without getting crushed by the mob.

Spying an empty back alley, she calculated a quick and easy route that would get her to and from her favorite melted Italian sandwich within her allotted hour lunchtime, before opening her e-mail to begin her day’s work.

“I may not get my prince,” she thought with a sigh as she clicked on her first message, “but I’ll be damned if I don’t get my panini.”

————————————————————————–

Prince Joshua rubbed his face with a tired hand, the muscles around his mouth aching from the forced grin he had to make to the countless number of women who had passed through his presence. He had been at this meet market matchup for five hours, yet it seemed like he had been there for days, the time crawling by like a meandering snail with no particular place to go. It was a virtual torture for the ever practical prince, whose mind continued to return to the pile of work he had to attend to back at the castle, each woman whose timer didn’t match up with his symbolizing a document, report, or briefing he could have completed were he not greeting commoners he would never see again.

Intensifying his impatience was the knowledge that his soul mate timer was dwindling down to his fated meeting, and the knots in his stomach began to tighten with every turn of the seconds on his left forearm. He may have been royalty, but his status could neither slow nor rush the rhythmic countdown that brought him ever closer to the woman of his dreams.

Though he would never admit it, he had been looking forward to the destined encounter with his future bride ever since he was told what the ticking numbers on his arm meant. Torn from his parents as a child to be raised by others in the long-standing tradition of the Royal House of Dres Van, Joshua had spent many lonely hours thinking about the girl who would someday become his best friend, companion, and eventually lover, the image of her in his mind giving him hope when the pressures of his position would plunge him into a black, empty mood.

She would be charming and sweet, kind and modest, a girl who would serve as an example to the world of the proper conduct becoming of the citizens of Dres Van. Bright and clever, but not smarter than him of course; in fact, she would freely admit his superiority of intellect, and be unendingly impressed by it. But above all she would be beautiful; all other princes of the neighboring kingdoms would be jealous of Joshua’s fair prize, wondering how he had been so lucky to have been fated to such an exquisite creature. He could already imagine her coming through the crowd before him, her enchanting face beaming at him with rapture, her soft, plump lips opening to say in the most dulcet of tones—

“PRINCE JOSHUA I LOVE YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!” screamed a fangirl, her shrill voice piercing through the air as she was dragged out of the room by security, her timer thankfully not found to be a match. 

Joshua let out a sigh of relief. Another silly, starstruck girl eliminated. It was the only kind he seemed to have seen that day. Weren’t there any eligible women left in the kingdom with a shred of intelligence or sophistication? 

At hearing his master’s sigh, Jan placed a fresh cup of tea on the table beside the prince’s chair. “Don’t worry boss, we’ll find her.”

“I know, but this whole setup is extremely trying,” Joshua retorted. “Couldn’t there have been an easier way to weed through these women than this?”

Jan gave him an apologetic smile. “I wish there were. But as your father said, were we to reveal the actual time on your arm to the general public, who knows what our enemies would do with that information?”

“I suppose,” Joshua grumbled, shifting in his seat. “Very well. At least my timer will end in less than ten minutes, so I don’t have to go through this much longer. However, I don’t see a decent face in the line of girls coming up next, and it’s disconcerting to say the least.”

Joshua’s words were sharp, but the hearing of the hopeful girls at the front of the line was even sharper. Despite his confidential tone, his conversation with Jan rang out loud and clear to the attentive queue, through which a collective shriek ran out at the revelation of their impending deadline.

“PRINCE JOSHUA’S TIMER IS GOING OFF IN TEN MINUTES?!?!”

“NOOOO I’M TOO CLOSE TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE LET ME MOVE BACK!”

“NO WAY, CHEATER, YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”

“I’M MOVING UP, I’M MOVING UP!”

“STAY BACK, NO CUTTING!!”

In perfect precision the Royal Guard locked to attention as the line of women began to shimmy and shake, straining the ropes that held them in place. Girls pushed and shoved against each other to jockey for position, their cries of protest soon devolving into shouts of frustration and desperation. Chaos attempted to overthrow the prince’s rule, and there wasn’t a word Joshua would abdicate to less than that. He stood up from his chair.

“Order!” he commanded, his deep voice drowned out by the cacophony of girlish squeals that erupted at the sight of his full-bodied, well-dressed form. “Such disorganization is not the Dres Vanian way!”

However, Joshua’s sight and speech only incited the crowd further.

“OH MY GOD HE’S EVEN HOTTER IN PERSON!”

“I GOTTA HAVE HIM!”

“I WANNA BE A PRINCEEEEEESS!”

“OUTTA MY WAY!”

Converging into one entity, the crowd of girls lurched forward, snapping the thick ropes that confined them as if they were nothing more than aged rubber bands. Only the linked arms of the Royal Guard prevented the mob from trampling their way towards their prospective prince charming, the hardened soldiers strained to their utmost. Though the warriors had faced many formidable enemies before, the strength of this fangirl army was like nothing they had ever seen.

“Master Jan.” A soldier wearing a uniform signifying his high-ranking status quickly approached the butler. “The Commander of the Royal Guard reports that the women lined up outside are trying to force their way in. The situation is becoming unstable and we cannot guarantee the prince’s safety should he remain here.”

Jan nodded. “Understood. I will remove His Highness immediately!”

“What?!” Joshua’s amethyst eyes darkened. “But if I leave here now how will I meet her?”

Jan’s keen blue eyes quickly surveyed all exits before returning to meet his prince’s glare. “I understand your concern Your Highness, but your physical safety is our utmost priority!” he insisted. “You have to trust that you will meet her in time! Please!”

Joshua opened his mouth to protest again when the creak and groan of the front doors of the auditorium interrupted him. Turning his head to the source, he saw the iron doors beginning to cave under the pressure of the throng outside, the squeals and shrieks of the girls increasing in volume all the while. He gulped.

“A-agreed,” he finally conceded, “but if I don’t find her there will be hell to pay!”

“If you make it out of here alive I’ll pay you whatever you want, boss!” Jan cried, tugging on Joshua’s arm. “Now follow me!”

Jan swiftly ushered the prince through a side door out of the main hall and raced him down the corridor, his sharp mind instantly recalling the layout of the building and navigating them through the maze of narrow passages towards the secret exit at the back of the convention center. Joshua followed hot on his butler’s heels, pulling back the long length of the white glove on his left arm to take one more peek at the numbers underneath and scowling at the ticking display.

“Dammit Jan, do you even know where you’re going?” Joshua gasped, readjusting his glove as they scrambled around yet another corridor and down a dimly lit hallway.

“Yes, Your Highness, I planned for such a contingency,” Jan panted, taking advantage of the low light and his position several lengths in front of the prince to roll his eyes. “We’re almost there!”

Reaching the door at the end of the hallway first, Jan slammed the lever and shoved it open to reveal the back alley behind the convention center, causing daylight to flood Joshua’s eyes. The prince blinked from the brightness, vaguely making out the figure of Jan heading towards a nondescript black sedan before the door swung back closed with a crash. Taking a deep breath, Joshua hurled the right side of his body against the door, heaving it open with all his strength – far more force than he actually needed. The door flew open from his momentum, sending him rolling and turning with its outward swing and crashing straight into something very short and very soft.

“THE HELL?!” swore a female voice.

Ice. Cold. Joshua felt something wet, sticky, and freezing fly all over his face, the strong smell of coffee filling his nostrils. He was falling – onto what he didn’t know, only that whatever it was tugged on his left arm and pulled him towards the ground with significant force. The rip of his white glove as it was torn from his hand echoed in his ear, along with the stunned gasp of Jan in the background, his world turning upside down with his loss of control over gravity. Then, just as his shoulder met asphalt, startled kiwi green eyes met shocked glittering amethyst before tumbling from each other’s view.

Immediately the prince pushed himself up into a sitting position away from the ground, wincing at the gravel digging into his ungloved hand. Brushing off the grit in his palm onto his thigh, his heart thudded to see the teltalle “0:00” blinking on his scraped forearm. He gasped and looked up.

Across from him, a woman sat unceremoniously on her rounded butt, her legs splayed out before her in a very unladylike fashion, especially for someone in a pencil skirt. One platform heel had fallen off her foot, displaying a sparkly purple pedicure, while the other was still shod in spite of her spill. In one hand she held an empty plastic frappuccino cup containing only the splashed remnants of its former contents, while the other held Joshua’s white glove – or what was left of it. Underneath her tousled butterscotch bangs her green eyes widened in recognition at the sight of him. Her jaw dropped.

“It’s you!” he blurted. “You’re her!”

————————————————————————-

Amy gaped incredulously at the unmistakable face of the man she had fantasized about for more than two decades. Even had the wind not been knocked out of her, she still would have been breathless at being in the presence of the one and only Crown Prince of Dres Van. Though she had gazed at his handsome features in print and media repeatedly over the years, nothing could have prepared her for the up close and personal view of the dazzling depths of his violet eyes, the silky sheen of his matching hair, the sensual fullness of his lips or the masculine strength of his jaw. Even without his royal uniform, she would have known Joshua anywhere in the world.

He was regal. He was noble. He was magnificent.

And he was covered in caramel mocha frappuccino.

“Oh my god, I am so, so sorry, Your Highness!” she bowed her head, quickly pulling her legs closed and to the side into a more modest position. “I had no idea you were going to come out of that door! My deepest apologies!” Without thinking, she used his glove that she still held in her hand to frantically wipe the coffee drink off his formerly pristine white jacket, a move that only served to stain both items deeper with the dark caffeinated concoction.

Joshua grabbed her wrist with his ungloved hand, the electric shock of their skin meeting sending a gasp to both their lips.

“It’s you,” he whispered in awe, “it’s really you!”

“M-me?” she squeaked, the deep notes of his hushed voice sending a thrill through her body. “Um, I beg your pardon, but do you know me?”

A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Not yet, but I soon will, seeing as how we are soul mates.”

“WHAT?!?!” She pulled back her wrist in alarm, but he stubbornly held it firmly in place, refusing to relinquish his grasp. He had waited far too many years to touch his fated love, and he had no plans on letting her go now.

“No, no, no, no, no,” she shook her head wildly. “No, there must be some misunderstanding, I couldn’t possibly be! You must have me mistaken for someone else!”

He frowned. “I don’t think so.” He turned his forearm to show her the zeroes that blinked across it, holding her wrist all the while. “My timer count down to zero the exact moment we met, so it has to be you. That’s the rule.”

“Ah, but you see, the rules don’t apply to me,” she said, voice shaking. “If you let go of my arm I can show you.”

Brow furrowed, he reluctantly released her, the warmth of his touch still lingering on her skin. Quickly, she pulled up the sleeve of her black cardigan on her left forearm with a trembling hand before turning the offending appendage towards him to reveal the shame that she normally hid from the world.

“So you see, Your Highness,” she pleaded, tears pricking her eyes, “there is no way it could be me!”

His eyes darted from her arm back to her face, his expression unchanged. “I fail to see your point. If anything you have just proved mine.”

She blinked. “Huh?”

He rose to his feet with an irritated sigh. “If there is nothing else you can show me other than your own blinking timer, then I wish to move on. I don’t particularly care for sitting in gutters.”

“B-blinking?!?!” She quickly turned her forearm back to face her and let out a strangled scream.

Her timer, which had never once moved in the entirety of her remembered life, was blinking.

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD,” she chattered, a mixture of euphoria and fear swirling in her stomach. “This can’t be happening! No, this is totally not happening! No possible way this is happening! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!”

“Pardon my intrusion,” the tall blond man next to Joshua interrupted, “but may I suggest continuing this conversation somewhere else, before the mob of women who would very much like this to be happening to them arrive?”

“Right, Jan,” Joshua nodded. He turned to Amy to extend her his hand. “Come, we will continue this at the manse.”

Hesitantly, she took his proffered hand to pull herself up. “Thank you, but that’s totally unnecessary, because you see I am a ze-, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” she yelped at the sudden feel of Jan’s warm hands placing her bare foot into her found shoe.

“Just attending to the future princess as is my duty,” Jan smiled, straightening up to open the door of the nearby sedan. “Now, off we go!”

“But I gotta get back to work!” she objected as Joshua dragged her by the hand towards the car. “I only have an hour lunch break!”

Groaning in exasperation, Joshua wrapped a strong arm around her waist and pulled her into the vehicle with him. “Jan will take care of all that, now just get in!”

“Wait!! I have a report due this afternoon! What about my deadli–!” Amy’s protests were silenced with the slam of the soundproofed car door as she and the prince were safely secured behind the dark tinted windows. Sighing in relief, Jan jumped into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine, leaving the gaggle of girls who spewed out of the door he and the prince had used to escape through mere minutes before screaming in his wake.

————————————————————————-

Freshly toweled from his shower, Joshua pulled a clean gray v-neck shirt over his head, reveling in its unsoiled softness and lightly laundered scent. While he enjoyed a cup of coffee as much as the next man, the prince had decided he far preferred drinking the stimulating beverage than wearing it.

Walking over to his vanity, he grabbed a nearby comb and ran its tines through his damp violet hair, all the while critically studying his image in the mirror. Prince Roberto had once described him as fierce-looking, and Joshua had to reluctantly agree. Years of living under the stringent rules of Dres Van, coupled with an inherent serious nature made carefree smiles a foreign concept to him. But while he couldn’t change the face he was born with, he hoped changing out of his royal uniform would make him less intimidating to the mysterious woman who nervously awaited him in his nearby office.

He sighed. This had not been how he had anticipated meeting his soul mate. In the space of one afternoon he had been chased by rabid fangirls, doused with iced coffee, called a kidnapper by his possible future wife, lectured by her all the way back to the manse about her supposed zero status, and then given the silent treatment after he had tried to make her feel better by saying that even though she was a little chubbier than he expected it was nothing that a strict diet and exercise regimen couldn’t fix.

“Apparently, she’s on the sensitive side,” he shrugged, making a mental note to ask Jan the specific location of “where the sun don’t shine” so that he could continue to place his helpful opinions there per her request should they truly be fated to one another.

The mystery of whether or not they actually were rankled him. Based on everything he had read on the subject, rule number one of soul mates finding each other was their timers blinking zero in unison upon meeting, which theirs undoubtedly did. Yet, the story she told him about her zero status, and the insignia on her driver’s license proving it, shattered that rule into a million pieces. What exactly was going on?

Joshua was a man of answers, but the woman who had just crashed into his life was a living, breathing question mark. Out of the thousands of women he had seen that morning, how was she the only one who fought against the privilege of becoming his wife? She was unlike anything he had ever anticipated in a bride, as if his list of preferences had been laughed at and ripped apart by fate. In the short car ride to the castle he had found her to be stubborn where she should have been soft, quick-witted where she should have been quiet, and moody where she should have been modest. If they were to marry, he could foresee that sparks would constantly be flying between the two of them, and not exactly in a good way.

Yet, he had to admit that was part of her appeal. She didn’t just blindly agree with him, but instead pushed right back at him, an experience he found both frustrating and exhilarating. Instinctively he felt she would be able to open his eyes to a different point of view and way of living. How much of the world would she open to him that he had missed all those years confined in his castle?

And more importantly, how much of her body would she open to him as well?

Based on how his own body reacted to the way her breasts plumped when she crossed her arms in defensiveness underneath them and how her lower lip pouted in petulance when she bit it, he knew he would settle for nothing less than all of it.

He adjusted himself in his suddenly too tight black jeans, before pulling a simple black blazer from out of his closet.

“I need to solve this mystery as soon as possible,” he thought, sliding on his coat as he exited his room. “Because at the end of this day if she’s not in my bed she needs to be well on her way towards her own.”

———————————————————————–

The gentle aroma of roses wafted through the air as Jan poured a fragrant, blushing tea into a porcelain cup emblazoned with the blue and gold Lieben coat of arms. Watching the blond’s almost zen-like movements, Amy could feel her jumbled nerves begin to calm with each swirl of the spoon made by his nimble hands that moved with practiced ease. Gratefully, she took the cup from him once offered, her first sip of the tea proving his proficiency. The flavorful drink soon began to warm her insides and unwind her worry with every one of her careful draughts.

“Thanks, this tea really hits the spot…Jan?” she queried, unsure what exactly to call the smartly-dressed butler whose pleasant demeanor had made her feel at home despite the imposing surroundings of Castle Dres Van.

He gave her such a delightful grin that she couldn’t help to think what a treat it would be to be served everyday by this charming, capable man. “I’m glad you like it, Miss Amy! It is a special blend imported from nearby Charles Kingdom, I thought it might help relax you.”

She set down the empty teacup on the table next to her chair. “I appreciate the effort but I don’t think anything is going to help relax me right now to be honest.”

“I know his highness can be a little…tactless,” Jan scratched the back of his head, “but he means well, truly. I think you will find being his soul mate a rewarding experience!”

“But that’s just it! I can’t possibly be his soul mate!” she cried, slumping her shoulders. “I’m a zero, Jan, a nobody! Prince Joshua can’t marry a zero! He’ll be a laughing stock and I’ll be thrown in the dungeon, or tower, or wherever you royal people toss us traitors to the crown! We have to stop this madness before it’s too late!”

“Now, now,” he soothed, grateful for his years of experience in holding back chuckles, “the only thing we have to stop is you saying such things. You are certainly not a nobody! You are a person, just like everyone else. And I’m sure we can find out the answer to this mystery. Perhaps your zeroes didn’t blink before, but they do now, and that must account for something!”

She looked up into his twinkling blue eyes doubtfully. “How can you be so sure?”

“I’m a believer in everything happening for a reason,” he smiled, skillfully refilling her cup with its matching white porcelain teapot. “And you know what they say - even a stopped clock is right twice a day!”

She gave him a wry smile. “I’m not going to be able to win with you, am I?”

“Not now,” he grinned, “but when you are a princess I will lose to you quite cheerfully!”

This time she giggled. “Jan, you are too much!” she beamed up at him through her mirth.

“AHEM!” Prince Joshua glared at them sullenly from the doorway. “Jan! Why aren’t you on the computer researching the answer to our question?!”

Raising her eyebrows in surprise, Amy looked back at the butler who simply smiled placidly at his master. “My apologies Your Highness, I shall attend to that immediately.”

As Amy watched Jan walk over to the prince’s computer Joshua scowled deeper, jealousy dark and foreign slithering through his veins. It was bad enough that the first smile she had bestowed had been upon his butler instead of himself, but even worse that the frown should return on her face the moment he returned to her presence. 

“Did you at least call the royal soul mate specialist?” Joshua huffed before flopping himself into the chair next to Amy.

“Yes, he should be here presently,” replied the unflappable Jan.

“Good,” Joshua exhaled. He looked over at Amy, who was rubbing her left arm through her cardigan with a pensive expression. “Are you comfortable?”

Startled she looked up at him. “Yes, thank you, I’m fine,” she said, averting her gaze. “Don’t look at him, don’t look at him, don’t look at him,” she thought frantically, knowing that the more she looked at him the more she would want to continue looking at him and the harder it would be to stop looking at him when she would be sent packing home once the soul mate specialist cleared up this confusion once and for all.

Joshua pressed his lips into a thin line. “Dammit, why won’t she look at me? Am I that repulsive to her?” Frustrated, he barked at Jan. “Haven’t you found anything useful yet?”

Jan looked up from the monitor. “My apologies, Your Highness. While I had several methods ready to disprove women who falsely claimed to be your soul mate, I did not foresee the necessity of finding ways to prove that a woman claiming not to be was.”

“You really are hopeless to have not thought of every possibility,” Joshua pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Remind me to have you sent to Nobel Michel for refresher butler training.”

Jan bowed his head. “As you wish.”

Amy’s eyes darted between the two men. “Good thing I’m not the prince’s soul mate, because I don’t know if I could handle dealing with these two characters on a daily basis.”

Her thoughts were interrupted by a petite maid leading an older bespectacled gentleman into the room. “A Professor Bhaer is here to see you, Your Highness!”

Joshua stood up. “Well it’s about time.”

“I rushed over here as soon as I heard, Your Highness!” cried the white-haired man with a bow. “Master Jan briefed me on the situation, and I must admit upon first glance it is quite confounding!”

“I didn’t ask you here to tell me what I already know,” Joshua retorted. “So I would appreciate you cutting to the chase!”

Professor Bhaer nodded, setting down his briefcase on a nearby table. “Yes, yes, of course! I would like to begin by examining your timers, if you please.”

Adjusting his glasses, the older man critically eyed the prince’s arm first, murmuring softly to himself as he carefully turned the appendage this way and that. “Yes, yes, very well, everything looks in order,” he said, satisfied. However, upon seeing Amy’s arm he let out a sharp exhale.

“There are faded scars here,” he remarked sternly, his brow furrowing at her over his glasses.

Joshua leaned over the professor’s shoulder to take a look, and was stunned to see faint horizontal lines lashed across the blinking zeroes. Considering how light they were it was no surprise he hadn’t noticed them at first. He knew harassment of zeroes was common, but the thought of her being physically tortured by bullies enraged him. “Who did this to you?!”

Amy looked down at the floor. “I did,” she murmured. “Just once, a very long time ago.”

Pain sharp and deep cut through him at the thought of her having inflicted it on herself. “But why would you do such a thing?”

Her green eyes looked at him with an emotion he couldn’t name, but had undoubtedly felt in his loneliest of hours. “You have no idea how much I’ve hated those zeroes,” she whispered.

Professor Bhaer gently let go of her arm. “Well, other than these scars your timer seems to be working normally. Now, tell me everything that you can remember of the day it stopped.”

“Not much to be honest,” Amy sighed, tugging down her sweater sleeve. “I was only four after all. I can give you the details my mom told me about that day but that’s about it.”

The professor wagged his finger at her. “I have learned that even the slightest detail cannot be overlooked in these cases! So let us look at all sides of this! Now, if you were four at the time, how old was Prince Joshua?”

“According to her driver’s license I’m two years older than her, so I was six,” Joshua answered.

“Master Jan,” Professor Bhaer turned to the butler. “Do you have access to the prince’s schedule when he was six years old?”

Jan nodded. “As a matter of fact I do, we digitized all his records last year. I’ll pull it up now!”

“Good, good! Now young lady, when exactly did your timer reset itself?”

She placed her forefinger on her chin. “My mom said it was December 15.”

Professor Bhaer grinned. “Splendid! Jan that should narrow down a date for you! And where did you live at the time?”

“East Longview.”

“Now you have a place to cross reference with the time, Jan,” Professor Bhaer cried triumphantly.

Joshua raised his eyebrows. “Are you suggesting the two of us met at that time?”

“That’s impossible!” Amy waved her hand dismissively. “My mother said we never left the house and no one visited!”

“No stone should be left unturned!” The professor raised a finger in the air. “Every lead should be followed!”

Joshua frowned. East Longview was a lower middle class neighborhood that had fallen on hard times and was known for its high crime and vagrancy. “It is doubtful I would have been in East Longview for any reason at that time,” he stated grimly.

“Indeed,” Jan agreed. “According to the schedule His Highness was not in East Longview that day, or any other date that month.”

“Hmm,” Professor Bhaer rubbed his chin. “Where one door closes another opens. Miss Amy, if you did not leave the house that day, what did you do?”

She chewed her lip in thought. “Most likely just watched TV. My mom used it to occupy me while she watched my brother, she was pretty overwhelmed at the time considering he was a newborn.”

“And what did you watch?”

“’Rigby Road’, probably,” she said, referring to a popular children’s show that taught numbers and letters via colorful puppets and bright animation. “My mom says that was my absolute favorite, and that I was always asking to watch it, even when it wasn’t on.”

“Really?” Joshua’s mouth curved into a small smile at finally finding a shared connection between them. “That was also my favorite show as a boy. In fact, my parents even arranged for me to be a guest star on it as a Christmas gift one year.”

The professor’s eyes lit up. “Which year?!”

“If I remember correctly, it was when I was six years old,” Joshua replied, his jaw dropping at the possible implication. “Jan!”

“Already on it, boss!” Jan cried, his fingers furiously typing away. “YES! Here it is! Prince Joshua was a special guest on ‘Rigby Road’ on December 15 of that year!”

“WHAT?!” Amy cried as Joshua rushed to the desk to see for himself. “Are you serious??”

Jan smiled in glee. “Indeed I am! And if you come here, Miss Amy, you can see the video of it I’ve pulled up on the computer!”

Trembling, Amy walked over to the desk where Jan sat and covered her mouth with a gasp. There on the monitor shone the image of a young Joshua standing next to a purple puppet known as Baron Von Blackberry, a frenetic character who was asking the boy prince why his skin wasn’t as violet as his hair.

“Is it because you don’t drink enough grape juice?” asked the puppet, confused.

Young Joshua frowned. “Grape juice doesn’t turn your skin purple, everybody knows that!” he huffed petulantly.

“Ah yes, I remember now how irritating that puppet was. Grape juice indeed!” Joshua mused, turning to Amy with a grin that quickly faded at seeing the tears that streamed down her face.

Though she stared at the monitor screen, Amy was watching another scene unfold in her mind. Memories washed over her in vivid color, transporting her back to the small living room of her parent’s home in East Longview. Once again, she was four years old, smelling the stew that simmered in the crock pot in the kitchen and feeling the shag carpet underneath her feet where she stood rooted in front of the television. Dimly, she was aware of a stinging sensation on her left arm that, though painful, was not powerful enough to tear her away from the image of the young purple-haired boy on the screen. It was as though she were hypnotized, a strange yearning for him pulling her towards the ancient set and causing her to instantly cry for her mother the second he disappeared from view.

“Mama, I want to see the purple boy again!”

“You mean that purple puppet?”

“No, the BOY! Bring him back!”

“What boy? Anyway, the show won’t be on again til tomorrow, honey.”

“Then I wanna watch it again tomorrow!”

“Yes dear, now please be a good girl and let mommy feed your brother.”

“I remember,” Amy sniffed, shaking her head incredulously. “I remember it all now! I saw you!” She turned to Joshua with a tremulous smile. “And I kept asking my mom to see that show over and over again, hoping I’d see the purple-haired boy, but she thought I meant Baron Von Blackberry,” she laughed through her tears. “It’s all coming back to me now!”

Joshua’s heart throbbed at the unguarded look of longing and sadness on her face, and he vowed there and then to do whatever it took to end her suffering. He whirled to the professor. “So what does this mean?” he demanded.

Professor Bhear pressed a finger to his lips for a moment in thought. “I think I understand what happened. Generally, the first rule of soul mates is that the instant they see each other their timers reach zero and begin to blink. I believe that when she was born, Miss Amy’s timer was counting down normally until the moment she would meet you today. However, when she saw you on television, her timer was ‘paused’ so to speak. While it set to zero, it did not blink because you still technically hadn’t met yet. Once the two of you met in person, her timer then resumed its regular programming.”

Jan discreetly handed Amy his handkerchief, which she took gratefully. “Is that truly possible?” he asked.

The professor nodded. “Though rare, I have heard of cases where this happened with other celebrities,” he said. “The advent of newspapers, television, and the internet have allowed people to see each other before meeting in person, a relatively new phenomenon in human history. Considering Prince Joshua’s high public profile, it was extremely likely that this would happen.”

“Is there any other way we can be sure, though?” Amy asked. “It’s just so hard to believe…”

Joshua frowned at her. “Why are you so against the idea?” he blurted, the hurt in his voice causing Amy to stare at him in wonder. “Is it that detestable?!”

“Of course not!” she cried. “But you haven’t seen how the world really feels about zeroes! I have! The people of this country aren’t going to easily accept me as their princess based on a flimsy theory like this!”

Joshua’s eyes darkened. “If they don’t, I will make them.”

The professor cleared his throat. “Unfortunately she is right, Your Highness. You will encounter some dissent from the people at hearing her past. But there is one method we may use to lay rest to such doubts. It’s still in its experimental stages, but it has proven to have had a 90 percent accuracy rate.”

“What is it?” Amy watched curiously as the professor opened his briefcase and pulled out antiseptic, bandages, and a black leather pouch which unrolled to reveal three surgical knives, a pair of pincers and two empty specimen jars. She gulped.

“It will require taking a skin sample from you, Miss Amy, of about two square inches at the site of your timer,” he stated calmly, brandishing the largest of the knives in front of her. “I must warn you it will be painful. No antiseptic or anesthetic can be used because the chemicals have shown to interfere with the results. However, the momentary pain will be well worth the effort.”

“You want to cut her without anesthetic?” Joshua grabbed Amy by the elbow to pull her behind him. “Are you mad??”

“It is the only way to know for certain, Your Highness,” Professor Bhaer said matter-of-factly. “The people will not be able to refute biological proof.”

Joshua was just about to give a withering retort when he felt Amy’s hand on his arm. Slowly, he turned to stare at her, stunned speechless at the feel of her touch.

“It’s okay, Your Highness,” she said quietly. “If it’s the only way to know for sure then I have to do it. I know what it’s like to be an outcast, and the last thing I want is for you to experience what I have. But more importantly,” she said, wiping a stray tear from her eye, “I also know what it’s like to be lonely. If there’s a chance your soul mate is still out there, then you need to find her. I’ve followed your story for years, and I know it’s not been an easy life for you. I want you to find happiness and not waste your precious chance at it with someone like me.”

“No,” he shook his head emphatically. “You don’t have to do this! There has to be another way to prove it!”

“We both know there isn’t,” she gave him a sad smile. “But really, it’s okay. After all, it’s not the first time I’ve drawn blood there.”

He winced. “Amy…”

Walking over to the professor, Amy rolled up her sleeve and presented him her arm. “I’m ready when you are. All I ask is that you please make it as quick as possible.”

“Agreed,” said Professor Bhaer, taking hold of her arm in one hand, while aiming the knife he held towards her timer at just the perfect angle of attack. “Now try to hold still as much as possible, please, the first sting is quite a doozy.”

“I’ll try,” she squeaked, squeezing her eyes shut in anticipation of the pain the moment she saw the knife slash straight down towards her tender skin.

Suddenly, Amy heard a scuffling noise, followed by a startled “oof!”, then the feel of a strong arm wrapping itself around her and pulling her into a protective embrace. Opening her eyes, she gasped to see that Joshua had crushed her to his chest with one arm, while his other was pointed straight at Professor Bhaer, his hand holding the knife that had just been ready to cut her and aiming it directly at the older man.

“Your Highness!” Amy heard Jan’s startled exclamation from somewhere behind them. “What are you doing?!”

“You dare to attempt to harm her again and I will have your head,” Joshua growled at the professor, his voice rumbling low and deep in his chest where Amy’s ear lay. Fresh tears sprung from her eyes and her vision blurred, the feelings of safety, security, home completely enveloping her being. Instinctively, she turned her head towards the prince’s chest and clutched his shirt, inhaling the masculine scent of him, “Joshua…” she sobbed brokenly, all her defenses against him falling away like dust.

“But what about proving to the people that she is your soul mate?” asked Professor Bhaer.

“Damn your proof!” Joshua swore. “She is my soul mate and that is final! I will find other ways to gain her acceptance than subjecting her to this torture!”

To their shock the professor let out a happy chuckle. “Very good!” he said. “You pass!”

Amy, Joshua and Jan cried out in unison. “WHAT?!”

The old man smiled gleefully. “There is no biological test to prove that people are soul mates! However, this little scenario was designed to test one final, crucial part of the soul mate bond.”

“And what is that?” Joshua scowled, refusing to put down the knife until he had seen Jan secure the other knives the professor had brought with him safely in the butler’s possession.

“Soul mate meetings aren’t only about timers,” Professor Bhaer explained, unendingly amused at Joshua’s death glare. “They are also about how the two people feel upon meeting each other. I think you have both proven the deep connection you already have to each other during this trial. I have no doubt that you are destined for one another, so to assist you further in refuting your retractors, I shall officially endorse your soul mate bond to the press.”

“Good,” said Joshua, finally handing the knife to Jan who firmly placed it back into the professor’s briefcase. “You are now dismissed. Jan, please escort the professor out as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Professor Bhaer grinned, bowing in farewell. “And goodbye to you future Princess Amy! No hard feelings, eh?”

She shook her head as well as she could considering Joshua still held her firmly to his chest. “None on my part. And thank you so much for helping us.”

“You are welcome! I would kiss your hand but I’m afraid I’ve pushed His Highness to his limits. Farewell!”

At the exit of the professor and Jan, Amy felt Joshua’s body relax. Looking up into his handsome face, her heart pounded at his nearness, her green eyes easily counting each one of his thick eyelashes that blinked over his amethyst orbs. Heat rose in her cheeks and her chest, the tender, yet passionate expression he gave her setting her senses aflame.

“So…we are soul mates after all,” he murmured, tightening his grip on her. “But of course I knew it all along.”

“Yeah,” she breathed, too enthralled in the rich timbre of his voice to care about his silly little boast. Turning shy at the intensity of his gaze she cast her eyes down, suddenly noticing the damp spot on his shirt where her tears had fallen. “Oh god, I ruined your shirt again! Sorry, that’s the second time today isn’t it?”

“Amy.”

“What a way to make a first impression, huh? I’m gonna make a helluva princess.”

“Amy.”

“Man, what did you do in a past life to get stuck with me? You must have been pretty awful!”

“Amy.”

She felt his slender fingers tilt up her head by her chin to look at him, his expression serious. Searching her face in concentration, his own soon softened into a small grin. “You talk too much,” he mused, leaning down to silence her lips with his own.

“The professor has left the building Your High-” Jan froze in the doorway at the sight of Joshua and Amy’s embrace. Breaking into a broad smile, he bowed. “I beg your pardon, Your Highness, forgive my intrusion!”

Joshua reluctantly broke away from Amy. “Don’t you know how to knock?” he protested, his reddened cheeks causing Jan to grin even wider. “Remind me to have your butler refresher course at Nobel Michel include how to properly enter a room!”

“Yes, boss,” Jan bowed.

“Anyway, since you’re here I have some assignments for you,” Joshua said.

“Yes, boss?”

“First, clear my schedule for the next 48 hours. I want to get acquainted with Amy.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Second, secure one of our finest guestrooms here at the castle for Amy and give both her employer and landlord two weeks’ notice.”

“Yes, boss.”

“What?!” she exclaimed. “Now wait just a darn minute!”

“And last but not least,” Joshua continued, ignoring her protests with a smirk, “please call the Royal Tailor and have him make three copies of each of my outfits. It seems the future Princess of Dres Van has a penchant for ruining my clothes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on my tumblr blog under the same user name. You are welcome to follow me there as well!


End file.
